It’s a well hopped black ale. Some call them CDA (Cascadian Dark Ale), I’m not in or from Cascadia, I’m not partiulary influenced by those. I’m not sure if I came up with this before I heard of them, but who cares.

It’s not an Black IPA, that just sounds stupid and I don’t condone that style name. Some say IBA (India Black Ale), I might sign on to that, but I’d like to promote yet another name…

HBA (Hoppy Black Ale)
A black ale which is just as hoppy as an American IPA. It should not get too much of the roasty tones as a stout, it should be hidden under the hops, it might come out as an after taste. But the hops should rule!

When the clock shows 11:11 make a wish and toast this beer and your wishes will come true, it will work best if you just happen to look at the clock. It doesn’t work if you set the alarm clock or wait for the clock, it should be by “luck” or instinct, then it works.

Today I’m brewing a Chocolate Milk Stout. Pale malt, caramel malt and three black malts (pale chocolate, chocolate and black malt). I’m using chocolate nibs (10 min boil), and will be adding lactose at the bottling. Everything else is the same as usual.

Don’t worry about the noodles, it’s not going in to the beer. Noodles t is a quick perfect meal when the oven is occupied. I got use for the rice cooker to, it will cover the boil off from the big kettle.

I think I will do like the last time, at the second fermentation pour 10 liter in one and the rest in the the second and add water so I get a lower ABV beer.

It was 26C warm in my apartment, and it rained this morning so it’s not getting cooler than that. So I wrapped the fermentation tank in wet blanket and put the fan on it. The temp meter said 20C (pretty good).

This is the first time I’m water adjusting the beer. To get really hoppy and crisp beers I realized I need to adjust the water. The water I have is pretty good so it was no big problem, it’s actually really good for dark beers because the PH 8.5 is quite high. But I never got a hoppy beer as crisp and hoppy as I wanted. I hope the water adjustment will make the beer a lot better.

But being me I just had to make it even more complicated, it’s Gung-ho style whenever I brew. There is a twist. I wanted the beer to be really red so I added beetroot, I see it got pretty much calcium and magnesium in it so it must be good for the hops. I’ll boil it with the brew for 20 minutes, I don’t think it will add much taste, or it might add some interesting notes to it. But it doesn’t look like it added any more colour.

I’m mashing in at 62C for 15 minutes, then decoct and step up to 71C for 45 minutes, so it should be medium well done body. While mashing in I’m drinking the #56 Voodoo Juice, this one turned out extremely well I don’t think it will last to August. It’s the perfect Witbier, much better than Hoegarden or any other one I had.

For the hops I will use Belma for bittering and taste, and Centennial for aroma, maybe I’ll dry hop it also?

Edit 2013-05-29: Second fermentation time. Good or bad idea, I don’t know but I think it was good. At least I can’t see anything wrong. I need more uRination Ale, it might be a warm summer and I’m out of it. So this is what I did… After the yeast cake and stuff I got 15 liters, so I put 10 liters in one vessel. The OG was 1078 and the FG was 1015 ( a little lower than expected), estimated 8.2% ABV.

Here’s what I did with the remaining 5 Liters. I added 5 liters of water. After my calculations the ABV will be around 3.5%ABV and 60 IBU. That’s an uRination Ale by my standards. If I dry hop it I think it will be good, and I need a low ABV beer for the summer anyway. If this works out well I will do this more often.